IT company supports local cultural values - a model to look up to

Gemini Solutions is a company that develops IT solutions for start-ups and for public companies in Silicon Valley and Western Europe. The company chose to get involved in cultural projects such as Dacian Statues. We interviewed Alexandra Bodea, the project coordinator.

Can you tell us a couple of words about your projects?

If we go beyond our daily activities, in our case IT&C projects, we realize that live in a society which we can transform if we get involved. Therefore, we believe that Gemini Solutions can improve the world we live in. This has to do with our social responsibility, if you wish, and with our personal drive towards the diverse aspects of cultural life.

I would first like to mention Asociația Identitate Culturală Contemporană (AICC), created in 2012, initially comprising Gemini Solutions members. AICC's goal is to promote Romanian culture and the communication of objective information about Romania. Romanian Letters is the first project launched by AICC, which seeks to promote Romanian people, projects and events, objectively and seriously.

Book launch: ”The Dacian people in Roman sculpture”, an event organized by AICC. From left to right: Leonard Velcescu, acad. Alexandru Vulpe, Ion Ioniță, Florin Pârlea

Another AICC project is the Dacian Statues virtual museum, created with the help of historian Leonard Velcescu. These works of art are least known in Romania, but they represent an important resource that can help us understand the relationship between the Dacians and the Romans. Today the statues can be found in famous museums from around the world: Paris, Versailles, Florence, London, New York or Jerusalem. The virtual museum gathers photographs and descriptions of these statues, as well as details regarding the places where the statues are currently exhibited.

With the help of the Gemini team, AICC created several websites that promote representative figures of the Romanian culture. I would like to mention Leonard Velcescu – art historian, PhD from École Pratique des Hautes Études – Sorbonne, Paris, and sculptor Ion Bolocan, one of the most important artist from the Republic of Moldavia.

Via Conceptual Lab, a project initiated by Theo Nissim, CEO Gemini Solutions, AICC has supported several cultural initiatives. There is a “Physics laboratory”, a cultural space where “people meet to discuss their ideas”, where the arts and their creators are brought in front of a distinguished audience that is knowledgeable in this respect. This is a space where a community is already rooted and where projects and bonds are created all the time.

A shot of Conceptual Lab

Projects such as Dacian Statues or Romanian Letters create a channel through which Romanian values are preserved and learnt. How did the community react and what were the main events that took place?

When I created the virtual museum Dacian Statues, I started with Leonard Velcescu's research, his PhD thesis, to be more exact, which he defended in Sorbonne in 2000, and his book Dacii în sculptura antică (The Dacian people in ancient sculpture), published in France, in French, and distinguished with the prize of the Romanian Academy in 2012. In spite of the fact that Leonard Velcescu's studies dealt with our cultural identity, the topic was not well known in Romania! Since then, the topic was tackled in the Romanian edition of Leonard Velcescu's book, issued in 2015 at the Romanian Academy Publishing House, and in the English edition, which is due to appear at the same publisher.

In 2013, when we celebrated 1900 years from the inauguration of Traian's Column, we organized an art exhibition with the support of the Romanian Academy and of The Union of Plastic Artists. Practically, we gathered the works of contemporary artists who were influenced by the Column. We simultaneously organized a French-Romanian Conference in Bucharest, with the support of ”Via Domitia” University in Perpignan, The Archeology Institute and The Romanian Academy. The list can well continue, but what is important for us is the fact that we managed to collaborate with institutions and people who understood the importance of these endeavors and who expressed their wish to get involved in something that is paramount to us all: culture. The Dacian Stautes project and the field of ancient history are not the sole interest areas the association has. We are interested in everything related to cultural identity. For example, we also created the website http://bisericaromaneascadelaierusalim.ro/ for the Romanian religious settlement in Jerusalem.

The Romanian Church in Jerusalem

What are the next projects in which you want to get involved?

We have a moral duty to get socially involved. We must all be aware that nothing gets accomplished if we wait for someone else to do it.

In the near future - we hope- AICC wants to produce the replica of an ancient Dacian noble statue, currently found in Florence, which it also wants to donate to the public authorities in order to be exhibited in a public space in Bucharest. These ancient statues, created by the Romans, circulated in the collections of the de Medici family and the royal Italian family. They are an important symbol of our cultural identity.

Statue of a Dacian nobleman, Florence

Another project, which we have recently begun, and which is less focused on culture, but very dear to us, is an online portal which gathers legal information and the contact details of the orphanages and the child centers in Romania. The project began out of the wish to help the children without a family through the direct involvement of the civil society. This goes hand-in-hand with the belief that also motivates us in our cultural endeavors: initiative and action are the key aspects that matter most.